Caselden said the 65-year-old professor had gone through a difficult breakup with a girlfriend about a year ago and that “prompted a downward spiral.”

Lasarte acknowledged violating restraining orders in September 2012, October 2012, and on Feb. 10. The victim each time was a woman, but it wasn’t immediately clear if it was the same woman or how she knew Lasarte.

In the most recent incident, Lasarte was arrested at a home on Moulton Road in Arlington after he allegedly scratched a woman’s arm with a key and bumped her in the rib cage with brass knuckles.